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Meet the Army’s new badass anti-tank weapon

The Carl Gustaf get its
name from the Swedish weapons production factory known as Carl
Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori ("Rifle Factory of Carl Gustaf's
town").US
Army

U.S. Armyinfantry
platoons will soon have the 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, a
devastating anti-armor system, as a permanently assigned
weapon.

Service officials completed a so-called
conditional materiel release authorization late last year, making
the M3 Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System an
organic weapon system within each infantry platoon, IHS Jane's
360 recently reported.

The service is also working on an effort to
achieve Full Material Release of the M3 later this year.

Army light infantry units began using the M3 in
Afghanistan in 2011, but only when commanders submitted
operational needs statements for the weapon.

The breech-loading M3, made by Saab North
America, can reach out and hit enemy targets up to 1,000 meters
away. The M3 offers the units various types of ammunition,
ranging from armor penetration and anti-personnel, to ammunition
for built-up areas, as well as special features like smoke and
illumination.

Special operationsforces
such as the 75th Ranger Regiment have been using the 84mm weapon
system since the early 1990s. The M3 became an official, program
of record in the conventional Army in 2014.

The M3 has enjoyed success with units such as
the 25th Infantry, 10th Mountain and 82nd Airborne divisions in
Afghanistan.

A civilian instructor
coaches two paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st
Brigade Combat Team on how to use a Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless
rifle during a certification class.US
Army

The launcher weighs approximately 22 pounds,
with each round of ammunition weighing just under 10 pounds. By
comparison, the AT4 weighs about 15 pounds and the Javelin's launcher with
missile and reusable command launch unit weigh roughly 50
pounds.

The CMR allowed the system to be quickly fielded
to operational units before the more exhaustive full materiel
release process is completed, Jack Seymour, marketing director
for Saab North America, told IHS Jane's.

The current plan is to equip all brigade combat
teams with one M3 launcher per platoon.